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Chiapas Police Arrest Italian Professor & Journalist Gianni Proiettis
Posted by Al Giordano - December 16, 2010 at 12:55 pmBy Al Giordano
Photo taken in January 2010 by journalist Gianni Proiettis during interview with family members of assassinated anti-mining organizer Mariano Albarca in Chicomuselo, Chiapas, Mexico. DR 2010 Gianni Proiettis.
Gianni Proiettis walked out the door of his San Cristóbal de Las Casas, home at one p.m. today and on his way to the corner store, neighbors witnessed three uniformed men in an unmarked white vehicle kidnap Proiettis and take him away. When family members and friends went to the Chiapas state police headquarters in that city to report the crime, they found that Proiettis was being held by those same police, and was being transported to the state capital of Tuxtla Gutiérrez.
Asked by family members and an attorney what crime he is charged with, authorities said only that Proiettis had been present last week in Cancún (twelve hours away, where he had been covering, along with many other reporters, the climate summit meetings and protests for the Italian newspaper, Il Manifiesto).
Proiettis, an Italian native who resides in Mexico legally on a work visa, is a professor of history at the state university - Autonomous University of Chiapas (UNACH, in its Spanish initials) - and has resided in San Cristóbal de Las Casas since 1993. During those 17 years he has reported regularly for Il Manifiesto, for the French publication Liberación and since 2006, for Narco News, among other publications. A tall, thin, soft spoken man with white hair and goatee, Gianni also teaches at an eco-tourism project in the Chiapas town of Venustiano Carranza, site of numerous conflicts in recent years between the state government and nonviolent townspeople. Gianni also reported earlier this year, for Narco News, on struggles against international mining companies in Chiapas.
A January 23, 2010 report in Narco News by Proiettis, an interview with the father of assassinated Chiapas anti-mining leader Mariano Abarca, was particularly bothersome to Canadian mining company Blackfire Exploration, LTD, and state officials that act to protect the company.
Given that they wer state, and not federal, officials who took Proiettis, and that hundreds of national and international reporters also covered events in Cancún last week, it seems highly improbable that his attendance there as one reporter could be the real motive or a legal pretext for his arrest.
Attorneys are now moving for an ampáro – a special protective order under Mexican law – to prevent authorities from continuing to hold Proiettis and also to bar them from deporting him from the country where he has resided for almost two decades.
Narco News considers an attack on the press freedom of Gianni Proiettis or any of our journalists to be an attack upon all and we will not rest until our colleague is free and his rights under law are reestablished. We are alerting our international network of journalists and friends and inform authorities that if they hoped they would be able to attack the press freedom of this journalist quietly, that has already become impossible. We will be monitoring this situation 24/7 and posting updates here when we encounter new information and until Gianni Proiettis is freed.
WikiLeaks: The Last Interview?
Posted by Al Giordano - December 7, 2010 at 12:23 pmBy Al Giordano
I hope this this story we published today isn't the last interview that WikiLeaks' Julian Assange will be able to give. After all, US Army soldier Bradley Manning, accused of leaking more than 250,000 classified documents to WikiLeaks, has been held in solitary confinement since his arrest, denied access to news organizations. There are people in power that would like to see Assange silenced the same way, or worse.
The interview was conducted yesterday by Brazilian journalist Natalia Viana, graduate of the 2004 Narco News School of Authentic Journalism, now co-chair, with Bill Conroy, of our investigative journalism program. It's a rare exclusive interview with an important newsmaker who doesn't give them often, and it was his final interview before his arrest this morning by British police pending hearings on his extradition to Sweden.
At today's US State Department press briefing, official spinner P.J. Crowley rattled sabers: "What we're investigating is a crime under U.S. law. The provision of 250,000 classified documents from someone inside the government to someone outside the government is a crime. We are investigating it. And as we've said, we will hold those responsible fully accountable. That investigation is still ongoing."
For those readers who mainly or only check this page, The Field, this historic interview is yet another reason to put the Narco News front page, also, on your browser list for daily review.
My take on this controversy is very clean cut: Julian Assange did the work that most news organizations do when government documents are sent to us and they are newsworthy. He published them. His legal status is as a journalist, and he enjoys the same First Amendment protections under US law as the New York Times. Therefore, any attempt to prosecute him would be illegal and unconstitutional, and I don't believe it would - or should - survive in court.
I bet the Justice Department knows that also, and thus the screeching by the Secretary of State and her spokesman are no more than public tantrums combined with rattle shaking and pandering to the haters, out of frustration of working for a government with a Constitution that guarantees freedom of the press.
To prosecute WikiLeaks or its staff for practicing journalism would constitute a threat to all journalists and publications. It doesn't matter whether Assange is viewed as a hero, a villain or something human in between, or whether one is happy or not that these documents are coming to public light; under the law, he is a journalist. And that is the standard by which his work must be defended and protected by all journalists, especially the authentic ones.
Read the Julian Assange interview on Narco News, and base your own opinions on the facts.
Banamex v. Narco News Precedent Protects WikiLeaks, Too
Posted by Al Giordano - December 1, 2010 at 6:09 pmBy Al Giordano
The current media, political and prosecutorial uproar over WikiLeaks' 250,000-document dump of leaked US State Department cables largely misses the big story altogether.
The story isn't WikiLeaks per se, nor its founder Julian Assange, nor even the information made public from those documents, interesting and newsworthy though much of it is.
The story – one that defines the times we live in - has been going on for a while now: State power (and that includes private-sector "states" such as corporations and commercial media organizations) can no longer hide behind commercial (and State-owned) media to consolidate and centralize power when citizens deploy decentralized, small scale, and even temporary media resistances outside of those institutions in these ways that make big media irrelevant.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton can shout all she wants about the WikiLeaks revelations being somehow "an attack on America." The New York Times can betray its own Pentagon Papers heritage and former street cred when its columnists like David Brooks mutter inanities like "I don't think we should have access to the cables." Amazon can banish WikiLeaks from its servers. INTERPOL can hunt down Assange, deport him to Sweden, which can then extradite him for prosecution in the US. The Justice Department can lock him - or his sources - up in Guantanamo or SuperMax and none of it will stop the institutional bleeding. Behold: Big media's tourniquet around State and corporate power has shredded into tiny pieces of torn and bloody gauze.
An old order is coming unglued before our very eyes. WikiLeaks is more a symptom than a cause of this gigantic shift away from a big media controlled world of public opinion. It is the latest chapter among many that came before it and many more to come next. And it can be understood by studying a simple law of nature: Life finds a way.
In the 1993 motion picture Jurassic Park (based on the 1990 Michael Crichton novel), that was a phrase repeated over and over again by a nerdy scientist type, played in the movie by Jeff Goldblum: "Life finds a way." Now, here is a related phrase that we splice upon that credo: "Information is life." Oh, isn't that catchy? Aside from that it will probably be stolen by Apple or Microsoft as its next ad campaign slogan, it also happens to be true. Indeed, information behaves very much like life itself. It reproduces, it mutates, it evolves, it can be hunted down, captured, locked up, and even be killed but eventually it always comes back to life anew, just like other forms of life. Understanding that basic truth of our era gives you a front row seat to how the WikiLeaks story – and the rest of the history of our lifetimes - is going to play out.
In that context, let me please rattle off two main observations provoked by the WikiLeaks chapter in this longer saga.
1. If US officials prosecute WikiLeaks under the US Espionage Act, it will result in a "not guilty" verdict.
At today's US State Department press briefing, official blowhard Philip J. Crowley, asked about the WikiLeaks document dump, growled, "a crime happened under U.S. law and we are going to hold those responsible fully accountable." Pressed by reporters, he backpedaled to talk mainly about the US employee or employees who allegedly leaked the documents to WikiLeaks. But the tone, like that from other government officials, was meant to intimidate and suggest that "ongoing investigations" could cast a wider net on the messengers, too.
US Attorney General Eric Holder rattled similar sabers this week when he said: "To the extent that we can find anybody who was involved in the breaking of American law, and who has put at risk the assets and the people that I have described, they will be held responsible. They will be held accountable."
A Wednesday National Public Radio story looked at what US law actually says regarding a possible prosecution of WikiLeaks members:
Washington defense attorney Abbe Lowell said, prosecuting the website WikiLeaks is no slam-dunk."The biggest taboo that has been out there, sort of the dirty little secret in the Espionage Act for a long time, has been whether it would ever be used to prosecute somebody in the media, as opposed to the government employee leaking the information," Lowell said.
The dilemma, Lowell said, is whether WikiLeaks is a member of the media that warrants special free speech protections, or more like a rogue operation dedicated to hurting the U.S.
"What I worry about and what many worry about is that WikiLeaks makes it easy for the law enforcement community to apply this law for the first time, in a precedent-setting way, that can be used against other people in the media," Lowell said.
In fact, the question of whether an Internet site that publishes information on "matters of public concern" enjoys the same First Amendment protections as the New York Times under the law was settled nine years ago this week, on December 5, 2001. How do we know that? It happened when the New York Supreme Court ruled in our favor in the case of Banco Nacional de Mexico v. Mario Menendez, Al Giordano and Narco News. The court ordered:
"Narco News, its website, and the writers who post information, are entitled to all the First Amendment protections accorded a newspaper-magazine or journalist... Furthermore, the nature of the articles printed on the website and Mr. Giordano's statements at Columbia University constitute matters of public concern because the information disseminated relates to the drug trade and its affect on people living in this hemisphere..."
While I've never reached the heights of fame-or-infamy that WikiLeaks' Julian Assange has ascended to this week – a candidate for both Time's Man of the Year and for a prison cell in Sweden or the US or elsewhere – the experience of that court adventure was illuminating on the current topic. Banamex v. Narco News settled, once and for all, that Internet journalists are indeed journalists in the eyes of the law. It set the legal precedent upon which WikiLeaks now stands. The government witchhunt to intimidate WikiLeaks and others like it might even be able to ramp up the hysteria enough to get a lower court to convict the web site or its personnel, but there is no way a conviction survives on appeals.
If WikiLeaks is guilty for having published information leaked by US employees, then we're guilty too, for having used its documents last week to report Bill Conroy's story, State Department "Secret Cable" Lays Out U.S. Intelligence-Gathering Agenda in Paraguay, and Erin Rosa's story, Memo Reveals US State Department Knew Honduras Coup Was Illegal, Did Not Follow Own Advice.
And not only are we guilty, but so is the Spanish daily El Pais, the German daily Der Spiegel, the French daily Le Monde, the British daily Guardian and the US daily New York Times, as well as every other of thousands of news organizations in possession of copies of the leaked documents and that have published and quoted from them. And although some politicians like US Senator John McCain want to take the NY Times to task for having done so, that's just not going to happen: State power isn't going to turn against its favorite surviving gatekeeper! And if you can't prosecute the Times, you can't win a prosecution vs. WikiLeaks, period.
The officials of State power are angrier than a five percent tip. And they're not angry because, say, WikiLeaks lied about them. To the contrary, they're hopping mad because everything in those documents presents an absolutely truthful account of what US officials wrote, and what they reported that officials from other governments said to them and did for them. WikiLeaks put no spin upon them at all. It just laid them out, naked, and hung many of those officials – their career paths, their carefully cultivated reputations – on the petard of their own words. Hey, dudes! Welcome to the NFL and wear a cup. You're public officials. Your employer – the public – has a legitimate stake in knowing what you're doing on its dime.
That said, could WikiLeaks and its celebrated founder Assange have done a better job at dealing with this info gold mine that fell on their laps? I don't know. All I can tell you is how, based on our Banamex case history and other experiences, we would have handled it differently…
2. How we would have done this differently than WikiLeaks did it.
From public relations stunts to court case discovery proceedings, there is a rule of thumb as old as PR itself: If you want to confuse people, or distract them from something you did, give them too much information.
And if you want them to focus on one thing, give them that one thing and nothing else.
Thus, every Friday afternoon, government and corporate press secretaries do "negative information dumps." That's when they announce resignations, or disclose scandals, or unfavorable economic reports, usually in the context of lots of competing information being dumped into public view at the same time so that the undesirable story gets drowned in the ocean of data and largely forgotten by Monday morning's news cycle.
By releasing all 250,000 documents at once, WikiLeaks deprived every single one of those documents of the solitary importance that many of them could and should have had if released on its own, with well reported stories explaining the document's full context. That is indeed how WikiLeaks first came to the attention of many: when it released a single leaked video from a US military helicopter in Iraq, documenting the assassination by US forces of a journalist. That story had legs, because it was given the space to stand on its own two feet.
Had a treasure trove of documents like this one landed instead on our laps at Narco News, we would do what we've always done (and in fact did with two of those documents this week): make them available one at a time, day after day, with reported stories of authentic journalism to bring these "matters of public interest" their full and deserved importance. Then, instead of everyone reading and chattering about whether Muammar al-Gaddafi receives Botox injections or whether someone called Nicolas Sarkozy a pompous ass (and whether he likes being called a pompous ass; we suspect he does!) we might all be talking about something real, like this gem from the WikiLeaks documents, that Slate's Jack Shafer chose to underline, which reveals why Secretary Clinton responded with over-the-top rhetoric about the WikiLeaks document dump being supposedly an attack on Mom, baseball and apple pie:
How embarrassing are the WikiLeaks leaks? A secret cable from April 2009 that went out under (Secretary of State) Clinton's name instructed State Department officials to collect the "biometric data," including "fingerprints, facial images, DNA, and iris scans," of African leaders. Another secret cable directed American diplomats posted around the world, including the United Nations, to obtain passwords, personal encryption keys, credit card numbers, frequent flyer account numbers, and other data connected to diplomats. As the Guardian puts it, the cables "reveal how the US uses its embassies as part of a global espionage network."
Additionally, Clinton's State Department specifically targeted United Nations officials and diplomats posted to the United Nations. Among the targeted were Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and permanent security-council representatives from China, Russia, France, and the United Kingdom, as this secret cable from July 2009 lays out. The State Department also sought biometric information on North Korean diplomats, security-council permanent representatives, "key UN officials," and other diplomats at the United Nations.
Whoa! Say what? The US Secretary of State violated the treaties the United States signed to host the United Nations in New York? Had WikiLeaks led with that story all its own, that's what everybody would be talking about all week long. And instead of Julian Assange's call for Clinton to resign, it would have come from a thousand surrogates, instead of becoming another free-floating piece of data in the "let's make Assange look crazy and dangerous" lobby's arsenal.
As I wrote last week for OpenDemocracy, in an essay titled, Authentic Journalism: Weapon of the People:
Citizen journalism, in some corners, however, has shown it can take from big media what they claim to do and do it better: Go out there and report stories, interview real people, make sure their voices are heard accurately and without distortion, investigate and produce documents and evidence of official wrongdoing (the staggering public support and donations to Wiki-Leaks, for example, indicate a significant hunger and thirst for this kind of reporting). In sum, the solution is no more complicated than embarking on a humble return to the basics of reporting a news story: the proverbial "who, what, when, where, why and how" of what happens each day in human events.
I can certainly understand how it came to be that WikiLeaks didn't use our approach instead. We're only in the position to do this after ten years of publishing, of going through legal hell and back again, and after three sessions of the School of Authentic Journalism which give us the necessary small army of skilled reporters of conscience we could call up on waivers to sift through 250,000 documents and State Department cables and be able to devise a strategy that could have been much more devastating for State power, with a daily water torture of one solidly reported story after another coming out, day after day, and providing the necessary public attention and focus on each of the many important ones.
Instead, WikiLeaks chose to "partner up" with the same big five daily newspapers so responsible for the protection of State power in their respective countries (and, yes, all of them will squawk that to the contrary, they're at odds with governments, but you and I both know how untrue that is). And the overall result is mass confusion that buries all the stories in these documents under a gigantic mound of distraction.
Sure, WikiLeaks has increased the reach of its own brand name. Was that the primary goal? Again, I don't know. But it has also hastened the day by which other, newer ventures, will replace it in the work of making secret documents public, because, fair or not, it is not at all clear that WikiLeaks itself can withstand the intense scrutiny, reaction and repression now upon it. We're sympathetic to WikiLeaks. We oppose those attacking it. We will defend it from spurious prosecution (our attorneys, who essentially wrote the law that protects WikiLeaks, are also on standby). We hope it can withstand the firestorm. But we're reality-based and have seen radical celebrity stories turn quickly to flashes in the pan before. This game ain't tiddlywinks. There are real consequences at play. And it's tough for metal to go through fire if it wasn't forged in fire, first.
What will remain, though, and it's a wonderful thing, is that the whole world now knows that anyone can make unseen documents shoot 'round the world in the course of a day. A thousand whistleblowers, in every land, are pondering the new landscape, with itchy trigger fingers on the send button. And Washington, methinks, protests too much, because the next waves will surely include leaks of documents from other countries, too, probably including from many of its adversaries. And then their Secretaries of State will be likewise screaming bloody murder and issuing stern threats to the media that expose them. The tactic of exposing hidden information is not wed to any ideology or "ism." It is merely a tool that can be made to work for all sides in any conflict. Don't be surprised if the next big data dump comes from leaked documents from Iran, or North Korea, Russia or any number of State powers at odds with the United States. This pox will soon be upon all houses of State and upon private corporations, too. (I've long said: The next Daniel Ellsberg will have to come from inside the New York Times rather than leaking to it.) And that, too, is as it should be: Information is Life! It finds a way!
I'll give Jack Shafer the last word here (and await your own in the comments section):
"Information conduits like Julian Assange shock us out of that complacency. Oh, sure, he's a pompous egomaniac sporting a series of bad haircuts and grandiose tendencies. And he often acts without completely thinking through every repercussion of his actions. But if you want to dismiss him just because he's a seething jerk, there are about 2,000 journalists I'd like you to meet."
Members of the official Fourth Estate, meet your newest member. He's more like you than you think, and the New York Supreme Court has already issued the precedent by which he enjoys the same legal protections as you do. Your fate is now tied in with his. So cut with the crybaby act and get back to work. The days are counted in which your institutions will be able to pay you to do it anyway, so enjoy it while you can, and if you have documents to leak from inside your media organization, or any other institution, mi email es tu email: email@example.com.
Coach's Log: On Directing the School of Authentic Journalism
Posted by Al Giordano - November 23, 2010 at 9:03 pmBy Al Giordano
(If only the late choreographer, theater and film director Bob Fosse, and head coach Vince Lombardi, were around to advise me now...)
The School of Authentic Journalism that we'll be able to host for only the fourth time since 2003 - in May 2011, in Mexico - is, to so many who have attended, one of the most intense, pleasing and meaningful life experiences we've ever known.
I'll never forget Johanna Lawrenson's parting words to the last session of 70 participants from 40 countries back in February on Mexico's Yucatán peninsula. I mean, Johanna lived and traveled for fifteen years – seven of them as fugitives – with the late, great Abbie Hoffman, one of the funniest, most exciting and most historic figures of the last century. She noted that she and Abbie had attended hundreds of conferences, gatherings and historic events and moments together, but that "this one, was by far, the best."
As the school's "head coach" it's my responsibility to choose each school's roster of professors, and, later, the students, all of whom come on scholarships. There are, of course, other coaches on this team with whom I discuss each school's potential faculty prospects at length and I hear many arguments from different perspectives in favor of, or not, one talent or another and how they combine as a group. But in the end the job falls on me to pick the year's roster of players. You can't blame any assistant coaches for bad decisions: they're mine when all is said and done.
Or, since not everybody relates to sports metaphors, think of it as a Broadway stage production, or a major motion picture: one needs the right combination of actors and other talents to make it work and succeed and have meaning.
It is an unbelievably difficult job, with so many talents to choose from, especially because each season we seek out students from previous years who we think are ready to teach in our subjects of investigative journalism, video production, online reporting and the strategies and tactics of the social movements that we report.
And what inevitably happens is we can't choose everyone, not every person who has something to teach, nor every person we love and respect. And because the school is an event that so many past participants want so passionately to return to, there is inevitably disappointment – in some cases, even anger and resentment – from some who don't get invited to come back. Ah well, there is a common expression here in Latin America: "Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die to get there."
Others, of course, understand. They applaud and congratulate each new school's faculty roster, especially the up-and-comers who are promoted from student to professor. They take pride in having helped their colleagues grow and advance. (And not all understand: It is no picnic to be a professor at this school, with me constantly pushing them to prepare better, teach better and do better: It's the students alone who think this school is heaven!) And we really appreciate and respect them even more for their good wishes and willingness to find other ways to collaborate with and stay involved in the very big project that is Narco News. They "get" that having been invited even just once – especially since students pay no tuition and in many cases we pay their air travel, room and board – is a once in a lifetime experience.
Since we are about to announce the j-school 2011 roster of professors and invite everyone in the world to fill out applications to convince us why we want them to attend as students, I want to explain our criteria to all for how we went about choosing the 2011 faculty.
There have been about 180 student and professor positions from more than fifty countries that have participated in previous Schools of Authentic Journalism as either professors, students or staff. Since some professors return from school to school, and some students are promoted to professor in subsequent schools, I would estimate that around 150 to 160 people have passed through its doors and received at least one diploma. Most of them are still considered very valued colleagues and collaborators and, most importantly, our friends. We wish we could invite every one of them. But for 2011, we will have 40 new students, and space for a maximum of 40 professors and staff, and we can't choose all our friends to come. Instead, we choose the people we think will be the best teachers of the lessons we want to teach.
Other factors are geographic and language balance (the school is bilingual, in that everything is translated to and from English and Spanish while it is happening), having enough personnel in each category of learning that we teach (kinds of media, a broad set of skills, and the all-important strategic dynamics of movements curriculum) and – I'm especially a stickler on this, because too many "progressive" events seem to have terrible disequilibrium when it comes to this – gender balance. We also try to have all age groups represented, too.
The truth is, the only faculty that has absolute job security for these (unpaid, and thus doubly impressive how coveted they are) professor positions are the school's "social directors," Tiberio and Maia, because they're a big part of the reason that almost everybody always wants to return! The rest have to fill the very specific teaching and staff needs that are also necessary, and work very hard with us over the coming months to give our collective and individual absolute best to the students. And we build our roster from there.
Now that letters have gone out to next year's professor corps – 31 experienced professors and nine 2010 students invited to come back as professors (almost all of whom confirmed within 24 hours, to give you an idea of the passions for the school) – word has begun to circulate among the j-school community and some folks, upon realizing they didn't get "the letter," have responded with the gamut of possible emotions and reactions. Some apparently felt a sense of entitlement and are upset, even angry, that they won't be teaching this year. I've been on the receiving end of some frosty communications and a very few others have put spins on it and decided to respond with speculation and/or gossip to others about why they think they were "rejected" or "excluded." I suppose that is human nature, but it's not very professional, is it?
I really should talk to some theater directors or sports coaches about this whole process, because I find it interesting: Like, let's say you once got the most wonderful present – a scholarship to what probably was the most fun and meaningful school or team or Broadway performance you ever attended in your life – but then didn't get a second ticket to perform on the next run of the show or the next season on the ball field. I've known some great actors, actresses, entertainers and even some sports figures who handle this sort of thing like pros. They know that you don't get called up after every audition, but there will be another audition for a future show and your chances haven't ended to be part of it in the future. And stuff can even happen between now and next May, when the show premiers and the season begins! There is always the chance of being called up on waivers if another player or actor is injured or falls ill or gets a better gig. Especially for the pros who carry themselves as such.
Anyway, for the rest of you who are not in the middle of this community (not yet, but we hope you someday will be), you can look forward to the upcoming release of the awesome faculty roster for the May 2011 School of Authentic Journalism in Mexico. And I hope you'll congratulate and wish every starting player, each leading and supporting actor, and the all-important crew behind the curtain the best. And if you would like to show your support by tossing a coin or two into the cup, please do so, because this happens only because enough of you do.
Together, we're about to pull off the biggest, and hopefully the best, School of Authentic Journalism yet. The theme will be "Movement Strategies for Journalists." And we'll usher in yet another next generation of auténticos whose good works you'll be reading, viewing and informed by for years to come.
And even if you don't attend, even more of the curriculum will be shared with you via Narco News TV and the stories our students post on these pages.
Meanwhile, I just look up at the skies and say, "Where are you, Bob Fosse and Vince Lombardi, when I need your counsel now?!"
We Have More to Do Together
Posted by Al Giordano - November 18, 2010 at 8:19 amBy Al Giordano
Poster made for the 2010 Narco News J-school by Ellen Fields. Photo DR 2010 Mariana Simoes.
They say it's the quiet ones who will get ya. If you've been around this page enough you know that when I've been quiet for a spell it indicates that there's been a lot churning behind this screen, all in preparation to bring something special back to you. And before these words are done, you'll be the recipient of some exciting news, indeed. But first, hear me out, because we need your collaboration to make it happen.
Regular readers of Narco News have been able to follow, in recent days and weeks, the Mexican town of Atenco's struggle against what may be a government plan to resurrect the international airport project that the locals defeated in 2002, and follow the gathering of "Other Campaign" participants last weekend in that town, and of two other towns that prevented Walmart from building stores there. You also now know how the people of Tepoztlán organized to expel their police chief, and about farmworkers's victories on both sides of the border.
Most of those stories - all important, all worthwhile - weren't reported by any other publication. This is the only place where all of them appeared.
You also know about the continued boom in herbicidal fumigation of coca crops in Colombia, and the true facts about Ecuador's indigenous movements and their ongoing struggle against hostile governments from the right and from the left. You know these things because in recent weeks, Narco News School of Authentic Journalism graduates Fernando Leon and Erin Rosa have investigated and reported them to you. As it was with Joe Hill, where people organize, fight and win against powerful interests, it's there you'll find Narco News. In fact, through our reports, it's there you'll find yourself... and a mirror to your own daily struggles from which we all learn to be faster, better and more coherent at righting the wrongs all around us.
Meanwhile, investigative reporter Bill Conroy continues breaking story after story that expose the US-imposed "war on drugs" and he drives the official censors crazy with Freedom of Information Act requests and dogged persistence. And when I'm not bailing water and plugging leaks to keep this ship of authentic journalism afloat, I hope that my writings and reports, as well as those of all our other participants, have likewise been of value to you.
But the time has come when I need to ask you again for the favor of your participation and support, because we've been bailing water too much lately and that sometimes slows down the voyage.
Daily, from every continent, in different languages, people come to these pages to know a little bit more about events and news that other media don't report. And supporters from every continent have donated over the past ten years to make it possible for us to keep doing it. Today I have a special request of our readers and supporters in the United States: We held back this autumn from asking for your donations because we knew so many of you were putting your all into Proposition 19 in California and other important November elections and community organizing efforts. Sometimes when we're not asking, it's not because we don't have a need: it's because we respect that others may have needed your time and resources more at that moment.
But now we are in real need:
- We've been working without a webmaster since September 24 because the previous one left unannounced for greener pastures before we could hire a new one, and we haven't had the funds to be able to bring anyone new on board. Meanwhile, technical glitches and problems are beginning to impede our ability to keep this online newspaper up and running to bring so much real news to you.
- We are various months late in our payments to our Internet service provider, to which we owe $129 a month.
- We have two full-time reporters to whom we provide modest monthly stipends and who give their all, every day and night, to this work.
- We went two thousand dollars in debt over the summer (when fundraising is difficult to impossible) to be able to meet all our obligations.
You're probably scratching your head and thinking, "$129 bucks? Stipends? A couple thousand dollars for a summer full of hard-hitting journalism? That's nothing!" And it is almost nothing compared to the resources that other news organizations and projects eat up to accomplish far less. But we're not in this for the money. And we've learned to live close to the land in order to give you the most for the least. We're in this because we have a mission: to break the information blockades and usher in the authentic journalism renaissance.
And we're doing quite well at that mission, but we need a booster shot right now.
Please pull out your bank or credit card and make whatever donation you can afford, today, right now if you can, to The Fund for Authentic Journalism to support the work of Narco News. You can do that online by clicking this link:
Or you can mail a check to:
The Fund for Authentic Journalism
P.O. Box 1446
Easthampton, MA 01027 USA
Do you know that the hardest part of this wonderful work is having to ask you for your help? We know you have your own daily struggles, too. But many small contributions – plus a few larger ones, when possible – have always added up to keep this ship a' sail.
Now, with that part out of the way, we do have an exciting announcement to make:
The next School of Authentic Journalism will be held in May 2011 in Mexico City and its mountain regions. Our friends at the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, who supported the 2010 j-school last February on the Yucatán Peninsula, are ready to support us to create 40 scholarships in authentic journalism, the largest Narco News j-school ever. But to be in the position to accept that support, we have to demonstrate, as always, that we also stand on our own two feet and are self-sufficient as a news organization with enough reader support to continue to be viable at this important work you help us to do.
Starting today, every dollar you contribute to The Fund for Authentic Journalism, up to $20,000, will receive matching support – toward the 2011 j-school and its scholarships – from that organization. We were very pleased with the results of the 2010 school and the work that its graduates are now doing as they report from every corner of the hemisphere and even the world.
So click this link and know that your donation will be doubled:
Or mail a check to:
The Fund for Authentic Journalism
P.O. Box 1446
Easthampton, MA 01027 USA
…and that, too, will be matched.
So not only will you, by participating and contributing, keep Narco News reporting, but you'll pave the way to scout, recruit, select and train forty more talents of conscience to unleash upon this world and all the unreported stories in it.
In fact, we're pretty sure you know somebody who should apply for the 2011 School of Authentic Journalism. So start working on 'em while keeping an eye on these pages for upcoming information about how to receive an application.
Everybody complains about "the media." And they're right to do so. We do it every day. But what other news organization or journalism school is doing anything to change it from below by mounting a global army of authentic journalists to do even more of the work that you come to these pages to read?
This is your project. Every day, for more than ten years, it has been for you and for the people whose struggles we report that we have had good reason to exist.
Let's keep a good thing going.
Have you made your donation yet?
Oh, good. Because now I have something else to show you!
From somewhere in a country called Europe, via the online publication Open Democracy, today I publish what others might call the theoretical and practical underpinnings of the authentic journalism renaissance:
Authentic Journalism: Weapon of the People
For the first seven years of Narco News, we reported mainly from Latin America and along the US-Mexico border. In 2007 and 2008, I turned my pen back toward the United States (all the while maintaining our unparalleled coverage from Latin America) and a new generation of readers - Field Hands! - joined those already here. The year 2010 brought with it definitive lessons about how the mass media disfigures democracy, and we have the unique and innovative plan to combat them.
With this one small push from enough of you right now, we can set the stage for the authentic journalism movement to go global, and, again, without dropping the ball in this hemisphere one iota. At the May 2011 School of Authentic Journalism, we hope to find about ten outstanding talents of conscience from Africa, Asia, Europe and all corners of this earth with whom to join forces in this hemispheric - soon to be worldwide - project of mutual aid among real independent journalists and communicators, and bring them to Mexico, too.
I'll have a rapid-fire series of related announcements in the coming days and weeks, but first we need $129 to pay our Internet rent, some months of back rent, a couple of monthly stipends for our terrific hard-working reporters, a new webmaster and a stipend for him or her, and to pay off a small debt. And to think, every cent and peso of it will be matched to begin our grand march around the globe to make this renaissance truly worldwide. It doesn't take much. It never has. But it does take a little.
Thank you so much for your continued support. We have so much more work to do together.
From somewhere in a country called América,
After the Deluge, the Media
Posted by Al Giordano - November 1, 2010 at 11:25 pmBy Al Giordano
Today is Election Day in the United States and all activities should properly begin with a G and be followed by O, T and V. You know that already.
And between phone calls, door knocks, and shuttling people to the polls, and especially in those hours between polls closing and when the results come in, I wanted to give y'all something to think and talk about that - no matter what the election results will be - is going to fast become a long overdue national (and international) public conversation.
As Jon Stewart put it so well on Saturday, the real threat to democracy stands naked before us all: It's the media.
There is nothing threatening about a free press, which is a wonderful thing, always. But the bought-and-paid-for "news organizations," an entire system of them, the ones with that permanent "for rent" sign pasted to their foreheads - including the ones that claim to be on our side - now must be identified as Public Enemy number one, and dispensed with as such.
Elections come and go every couple or few years, depending on your country of residence, and entire industries are devoted to what Pat Cadell presciently labeled in 1976 as The Permanent Campaign. In fact, the considerable booty received by political consultants, pollsters, staffers, party bureaucrats and others in that genre is dwarfed by the financial rewards each election brings to the commercial media (and, sorry, bloggers that depend on advertising are also part of the commercial media, let's end the charade right here and now). Most of the money raised for political candidates is spent on TV, radio, newspaper and Internet ads, as well as putting on the free show that media organizations can produce as "news" and use to rent your attention to advertisers.
Which is why I was, before it happened, skeptical about Saturday's "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear" on the Washington Mall produced by Comedy Central's Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. I enjoy both those guys and their TV shows well enough when I get the chance to see them. But after a couple years in which the so called "alternative media" – from "liberal" MSNBC hosts to "netroots" bloggers to the Huffington Post to state-run media that claim to be leftist or socialist or whatever in parts of Latin America and the world – have proved themselves to be as ugly and snarling and petty (and reckless with the truth) as Fox News, in that context, I was bracing myself for a huge disappointment with Stewart and Colbert's rally.
Truth is, I had forgotten the Stewart-Colbert event was going to happen – it wasn't that much on my mind - and had planned on spending a beautiful sunny Saturday away from the screen. Then I made the mistake of checking email Saturday morning and clicking a link and there it was, live streaming on C-Span, with Colbert playing the spastic Dean Martin role to Stewart's Frank Sinatra.
I had already heard complaints from democracy's best (maybe only) friends, community and field organizers, that Comedy Central's scheduling of the rally would pull many attendees off the phone banks and door-to-door canvasses to get out the vote today. But what the hell, it must be good for a few laughs, and there I was, sucked, like so many others, into its vortex, another spectator among millions.
After all, I thought, Tuesday's US elections might well go as badly as the media keeps telling us they will, so might as well look for something to laugh rather than cry about. And the Colbert-Stewart schtick on the Washington Mall was entertaining enough, and it was nice to be made to feel that folks like us are the real mainstream, and they got in some clever zingers exposing the hypocrisy not just of Fox News but of the wolves in sheep's clothing that are the New York Times and National Public Radio. Hooray! But I still felt kind of empty about it, and annoyed with its timing, until at the end when Jon Stewart delivered "the speech."
Stewart's speech was a really important moment, and here is why I think so.
Now, I was just a kid when Sinatra premiered the Claude Francois, Jaques Revaux and Paul Anka-penned "My Way," but I imagine that for the millions of us who watched Jon Stewart get serious and sincere on live TV on Saturday that it was probably, for many of us, a moment like that of a previous generation hearing the "I did it my way" anthem for the first time. It was historic, and it came by surprise from a stage that we did not expect it to come from.
In a few brief minutes, Stewart defined the real problem with politics, identified it as the neighborhood bully in the global village, and delivered a staggering left hook to its jaw. And the bully's apologists and wannabes are still quite concussed and off balance. "Jon Stewart has met the enemy, and it's the media," fretted our fine feathered friends at Politico. And the hen house has been clucking ever since.
To wit, the predictably smarmy reaction from the New York Times:
The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear will be remembered, in part, as an expensive, engrossing act of media criticism.
Jon Stewart, the comedian who hosted the Comedy Central rally alongside Stephen Colbert, spoke about the press as an "immune system" for the country — one that he evidently thinks is extremely sick. His words echoed up and down the National Mall on Saturday afternoon. National Journal wound up wondering if the event should have been called the Rally to Restore Journalism.
Mr. Stewart has ventured into serious media criticism before on "The Daily Show" and in appearances on CNN and Fox News. But Saturday's comments were notable because hundreds of journalists were in attendance, standing on a press riser near the stage and interviewing rallygoers in the crowd.
The media's flaws also came up time and time again in the crowd…
An "expensive, engrossing act of media criticism" they called it (as if putting out a single day's edition of the boring and status quo chasing NY Times isn't at least as expensive and engrossing as Comedy Central's Saturday afternoon gathering of hundreds of thousands of its closest friends). Anyway, the Times had banned its employees from attending the rally, which earned it one of Colbert's "fear awards" handed out during the event.
The aforementioned National Journal story said:
Maybe it's a good thing many mainstream journalists weren't allowed to attend the "Rally to Restore Sanity." They wouldn't be the most popular people there.
For, in a protest against a culture of yelling, journalists are drawing much of the ire...
The Christian Science Monitor – no longer a hard copy newspaper but, rather, an exclusively online rag, which probably makes it a bit more sensitized to new realities of media, engaged in some pre-rally navel gazing:
If you thought the "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear " coming up on Oct. 30 in Washington was just a date for some good laughs and maybe hot entertainment, think again. It is also shaping up as yet another event in the ongoing dialogue about where journalism is headed in the brave world of new media, where points of view are welcome.
I'm always amazed at these graduates of the "the best journalism schools" who misunderstand it all. They seem to think that the conflict is between journalists who can disclose our opinions and those who think they can't. The real conflict is between those who seek the to involve the people in discovering the whole truth, and those pursuing ratings and advertising or sponsors, who think they are somehow a caste above the plebes. But, anyway...
Well, enough of what the recipients of Stewart's critique have to say. Let's listen or read together to much of what Stewart actually said that has so many of their panties – I'm winkin' at you, Keith Olbermann – in a bunch. Stewart said:
I can't control what people think this was. I can only tell you my intentions. This was not a rally to ridicule people of faith or people of activism or to look down our noses at the heartland or passionate argument or to suggest that times are not difficult and that we have nothing to fear. They are and we do. But we live now in hard times, not end times. And we can have animus and not be enemies.
But unfortunately one of our main tools in delineating the two broke. The country's 24 hour political pundit perpetual panic conflictinator did not cause our problems but its existence makes solving them that much harder. The press can hold its magnifying up to our problems bringing them into focus, illuminating issues heretofore unseen or they can use that magnifying glass to light ants on fire and then perhaps host a week of shows on the sudden, unexpected dangerous flaming ant epidemic.
If we amplify everything we hear nothing…
The press is our immune system. If we overreact to everything we actually get sicker--and perhaps eczema.
And yet, with that being said, I feel good—strangely, calmly good. Because the image of Americans that is reflected back to us by our political and media process is false. It is us through a fun house mirror, and not the good kind that makes you look slim in the waist and maybe taller, but the kind where you have a giant forehead and an ass shaped like a month old pumpkin and one eyeball.
So, why would we work together? Why would you reach across the aisle to a pumpkin assed forehead eyeball monster? If the picture of us were true, of course, our inability to solve problems would actually be quite sane and reasonable. Why would you work with Marxists actively subverting our Constitution or racists and homophobes who see no one's humanity but their own? We hear every damn day about how fragile our country is—on the brink of catastrophe—torn by polarizing hate and how it's a shame that we can't work together to get things done, but the truth is we do. We work together to get things done every damn day!
The only place we don't is here or on cable TV. But Americans don't live here or on cable TV. Where we live our values and principles form the foundations that sustains us while we get things done, not the barriers that prevent us from getting things done. Most Americans don't live their lives solely as Democrats, Republicans, liberals or conservatives. Americans live their lives more as people that are just a little bit late for something they have to do—often something that they do not want to do—but they do it--impossible things every day that are only made possible by the little reasonable compromises that we all make.
Look on the screen. This is where we are. This is who we are.
(Stewart then uses a large video screen as a visual prop, showing an aerial view of what looks like an entrance to the Holland or Lincoln tunnels that connect New Jersey with New York and a four lane highway narrowing into two lanes as traffic enters the tunnel.)
These cars—that's a schoolteacher who probably thinks his taxes are too high. He's going to work. There's another car-a woman with two small kids who can't really think about anything else right now. There's another car, swinging, I don't even know if you can see it—the lady's in the NRA and she loves Oprah. There's another car—an investment banker, gay, also likes Oprah. Another car's a Latino carpenter. Another car a fundamentalist vacuum salesman. Atheist obstetrician. Mormon Jay-Z fan. But this is us. Every one of the cars that you see is filled with individuals of strong belief and principles they hold dear—often principles and beliefs in direct opposition to their fellow travelers.
And yet these millions of cars must somehow find a way to squeeze one by one into a mile long 30 foot wide tunnel carved underneath a mighty river. Carved, by the way, by people who I'm sure had their differences. And they do it. Concession by conscession. You go. Then I'll go. You go. Then I'll go. You go then I'll go. Oh my God, is that an NRA sticker on your car? Is that an Obama sticker on your car? Well, that's okay—you go and then I'll go.
And sure, at some point there will be a selfish jerk who zips up the shoulder and cuts in at the last minute, but that individual is rare and he is scorned and not hired as an analyst.
Because we know instinctively as a people that if we are to get through the darkness and back into the light we have to work together. And the truth is, there will always be darkness. And sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel isn't the promised land. Sometimes it's just New Jersey. But we do it anyway, together.
If you want to know why I'm here and want I want from you, I can only assure you this: you have already given it to me. Your presence was what I wanted.
Sanity will always be and has always been in the eye of the beholder. To see you here today and the kind of people that you are has restored mine. Thank you.
Our friend Tom Watson's response was to playfully tag Stewart as America's First Jewish President, which has a nice ring to it. And in the sense that a significant sector of society is finally coming to the long overdue conclusion that media is the central problem of our times could be defined as a nation, of sorts, or a shared state of mind, Stewart certainly gave voice to the one problem the media won't and can't honestly address: Itself. It took a "comedy" commentator to be able to talk plainly and matter-of-factly about it.
And now I understood why Stewart called and produced the rally: He is thinking beyond this news cycle ("election day" and its consequences) and toward what, tonight and tomorrow, comes next.
In 1996, I wrote:
Media now controls a new economic order: one that has supplanted governments, churches and productive industry to impose a mediating tyranny over people and our Daily Lives.
Among the 30,000 words I penned for that essay, were these:
The public is angry, of course, but Media channels our hostility toward each other, as groups and market niches, instead of against the overall phenomena of Middlemen and their mediating technologies. Ah but we notice at fissure in its vessel: Media has programmed us well to seek scapegoats, and has test-marketed every scapegoat upon us except itself.
Everything we've created since, for the past 14 years, from Narco News to the School of Authentic Journalism to The Field, has been building and preparing for public opinion to find its voice on the problem of media, helping to inform it when we can, and constructing these laboratories to invent and test what we, the people, can do to replace the media and make it less powerful over our daily lives. And we've risen up a small army or network of like-minded authentic journalists across international lines, many of whom are conducting their own experiments and inventions. We suffer from a perpetual lack of resources (okay, that is sugar-coating it: we live in abject poverty, many of us in the so-called "third world") and generally those who already have plenty of money are disinterested, or too dependent on maintaining good relations with big media themselves, or outright hostile to the suggestion that the whole "news media" show needs to be blown up and something new created from the ground up. But we don't complain. We'd rather be here than there.
Back in 2007, when I was reporting on the Obama campaign and its resurrection of community organizing as a political tool, I was very impressed with its "Camp Obama," in which tens of thousands of mostly young people from every demographic in the US were trained in its fine but then forgotten arts. And I suggested to the big guns of Obama's political organization – David Plouffe, David Axelrod, at the time Marshall Ganz - that they expand the concept to also start a kind of "Obama Media Camp" training program and form an army of independent video makers, reporters and communicators in all forms of media to construct a counterforce to the dominant media discourse. After all, its something we had already invented through The School of Authentic Journalism, it works, and if applied on a mass grassroots level, a political movement would no longer be dependent on or victim of the very different and often hostile operating procedures of commercial media. They were busy with other things, understandably, but I bet that, after today's elections, they'll wish they had done something like that.
Every grassroots citizen movement in every country has to start building its own media, now, urgently, immediately, to have a fighting chance at defining itself and its message before public opinion, or big media will continue pummeling the hope and inspiration out of everyone.
And that's why Jon Stewart's message on Saturday came at the exact opportune moment in history, because starting tonight, more and more people in the United States and elsewhere are going to realize that the problem in our cultures is much bigger than mere politics. The broken political systems are mere symptoms of what Stewart described when he observed: "The press is our immune system. If we overreact to everything we actually get sicker." Every time I have written against panic and "Chicken Little" approaches to politics, it has been from that same instinct: that overreaction makes its practitioners not only useless as change agents, but also unattractive and unappealing to the great mass of people out here who we need to organize and convince to get almost anything real done.
After the success of Stewart and Colbert's rally (plenty of credit should also go Colbert's way because he so artfully plays the "insane" role that allows Stewart to effectively play the voice of "sanity"), a lot of folks in the media, especially those who market themselves as "alternative" media, will be acting as if they are enthusiastic supporters of Stewart's message while they continue behaving like "liberal" versions of Fox News (which is why I'm kind of relieved to see Keith Olbermann's Twitter outburst, "It wasn't a big shark but Jon Stewart jumped one just now with the 'everybody on The cable is the same' naiveté," inadvertently demonstrating the truth of what the MSNBC host was denying).
Sorry, Keith (and Arianna, and even my once-and-future little brothers Markos and Nate, there is still a place for you all among the people when you decide to go for broke instead of going for the money, and we'll all welcome you back with open arms). It doesn't matter who plays the token liberal roles on TeeVee or newspapers or magazines or radio or the Internet as long as y'all are playing the same ratings and advertising driven game; drumming up the outrage and the poutrage, making every pothole seem like an earthquake, desperately trying to hang on to a public that is evidently tuning out on all that. It is the game board itself that has to be torn up and something else altogether invented from the bottom up to replace it.
And I know that a great many of the millions who saw Stewart's sincere remarks Saturday live from the Washington Mall, or since, "get" that at the most profound level. The question of what we now do about it is one we have been asking and answering for ten years from this web address and out beyond it in the realm of daily life. And Stewart has opened up a hole in the media system that we can and must now jackhammer, fracture and make bigger in order to drive a stake through its heartless pacemaker.
Saturday was a heroic moment for Jon Stewart, who may yet disappoint us, still, but for now is on fire, and good on him. All props to him and his team, a Sinatra Rat Pack for our times. And I'm reminded of Aunt May's speech to Peter Parker in Spider Man 2, on point:
Everybody loves a hero. People line up for them, cheer them, scream their names. And years later, they'll tell how they stood in the rain for hours just to get a glimpse of the one who taught them how to hold on a second longer. I believe there's a hero in all of us, that keeps us honest, gives us strength, makes us noble, and finally allows us to die with pride, even though sometimes we have to be steady, and give up the thing we want the most. Even our dreams...
I have a feeling that was what Jon Stewart's words meant for a lot of people on Saturday, and since. And starting Wednesday, the organizing begins anew to do something big about it, to make and be the change we might not have made electorally in 2010. We have it in our collective power to organize something really, truly, authentically historic, to make history once again: To get this yoke of "the media" off our necks. Never mind the scoreboard at the end of a single Election Day. Elections come and go. It's the other 360-something days a year when we really control our destinies or not. Elections are important. There is no denying it. But every single other day and night of the year has import, too. Let's keep perspective, and never panic. Yes, we will. And we shall overcome.


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subset: commoncrawl


text:
| Email | Full Article (TrendHunter.com/id/444) |
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Group Packages
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Physical Location
19302 Leapwood Ave
Carson, CA 90746-1954
Mailing Address
19302 Leapwood Ave.
Carson, CA 90746-1954
Phone: (310) 327-8245
School Type: Regular
School Level:
Primary School
School Status: Operational
School District: Los Angeles Unified
County: Los Angeles
Location: Small City (less than 100,000)
Title I School: Yes
Title I School-Wide Program: Yes
Students: 355
Teachers: 18
Student-Teacher Ratio: 19.7 to 1
Lowest Grade in School: Kindergarten
Highest Grade in School: 05
Students by Grade
Kindergarten: 68
Grade 1: 52
Grade 2: 57
Grade 3: 41
Grade 4: 71
Grade 5: 66
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Leapwood Avenue Elementary, CA
(< 0.1 mile) Towne Avenue Elementary, CA (0.4 miles WNW) Annalee Avenue Elementary, CA (0.5 miles E) Glenn Hammond Curtiss Middle, CA (0.8 miles ESE) Magnolia Science Academy 3, CA (0.8 miles ESE) |
California Academy of Mathematics and Science, CA
(0.8 miles NNE)
New Millennium Secondary, CA (0.8 miles S) Broadacres Avenue Elementary, CA (1.2 miles E) Ambler Avenue Elementary, CA (1.6 miles NNW) Andrew Carnegie Middle, CA (1.8 miles S) |
First Lutheran Child Development, CA
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Carson Montessori Academy, CA (1.7 miles S) Carson Christian School, CA (1.8 miles S) St. Philomena Elementary School, CA (2 miles SSW) Double Rock Learning Center, CA (2.3 miles NNE) |
Harbor Ucla Children Center, CA
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Gardena Valley Christian School, CA (2.4 miles WNW) St. Anthony of Padua School, CA (2.6 miles NW) St. Anthony's Day Nursery, CA (2.6 miles NW) Wonderland Angels Early Learning, CA (2.6 miles N) |
The Demographic Data for the 3,653 California cities, towns, counties, ZIP Codes and Census Designated Places (CDPs) profiled in this gazetteer is updated annually. Last Update: July 1, 2014.
The ZIP Code maps and the data regarding the number of residential and business addresses in each ZIP Code are updated four times per year. Last Update: November 1, 2014.
The information on the 121,386 California Physical, Cultural and Historic Features is updated six times per year. Last Update: December 2, 2014.
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text:
Sun, Apr 13, 14 at 1:22
Hi , have aquired this today. Im not sure if its antique Any information appreciated ..i am in newzealand Th.x |
Follow-Up Postings:
It looks like a kerosene lamp; I can't tell for sure, but you can. Lift the chimney and look at the details. A kerosene lamp will have a wick, a knob of raising and lowering the wick, vent holes in the bottom side of the metal parts, and a flame slot. There should be screw-on cap for filling the fuel bowl; If not, the lamp is re-fueled by taking off the top assembly. A lamp designed for lighting usually had a flat wick (makes a wider flame). If the wick is round, it is probably a decorative lamp or intended to burn perfumed fuel. Its a very pretty lamp. |
Not an antique |
Thankyou very much for your feedback |
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The Global Intelligence Files,
files released so far...
Index pages
by Date of Document
Our Partners
Al Akhbar - Lebanon
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courage is contagious
The Global Intelligence Files
On Monday February 27th, 2012, WikiLeaks began publishing The Global Intelligence Files, over five million e-mails from the Texas headquartered "global intelligence" company Stratfor. The e-mails date between July 2004 and late December 2011. They reveal the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations, such as Bhopal's Dow Chemical Co., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and government agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Marines and the US Defence Intelligence Agency. The emails show Stratfor's web of informers, pay-off structure, payment laundering techniques and psychological methods.
Books I gave you
Released on 2013-02-13 00:00 GMT
Email-ID | 3446301 |
Date | 2009-02-25 23:34:10 |
From | email@example.com |
To | firstname.lastname@example.com |
Hornblower in space )
# On Basilisk Station (1993) ISBN 0-671-57793-X
# The Honor of the Queen (1993) ISBN 0-671-57864-2
# The Short Victorious War (1994) ISBN 0-671-87596-5
The universe first explored in On Basilisk Station has a detailed
diasporal historical "background" for the initial storyline, in which
(over several thousand years) mankind migrated first to stars near Earth
by "slow-ships" (See: cryonics and suspended animation) and then, as a
means of faster than light travel was discovered and gradually developed,
rapidly beyond.
The hypothesized FTL system is a richly detailed hyperspace mechanism,
with some unique features such as the ability to "sail" along "gravity
waves". One important feature of the hypothesized physics behind the tales
is that there exist rare wormholes, by which properly equipped ships can
travel virtually instantaneously between wormhole terminus points, vastly
speeding interstellar travel along such routes. In practice, these are
akin to choke point naval stations (fortified ports, cities, etcetera, in
the Age of Sail in the Caribbean, around the horns of Africa and South
America, or places in the Far East like India, Ceylon, The East Indies or
places near strategic straits like many in today's Indonesia) or man-made
routes such as the Panama and Suez canals. Possession of a wormhole
provides the owner star nation an important revenue source from tariffs
and increased trading opportunities relative to star nations without such
The analog to our world's extant nation states is the star nation, which
in the case of central protagonist Honor Harrington is the Star Kingdom of
Manticore. This is located in a binary star system that has three
inhabited planets and the unique status of having not just one terminus of
a wormhole junction, but six (to the stars: Sigma Draconis, Matapan,
Gregor, Basilisk, Trevor's Star, and Phoenix) as of the events in the
first book of the series On Basilisk Station. In the tenth novel of the
series, War of Honor, a seventh terminus is discovered and explored and it
is found to lead to a planetless M8 red dwarf near the inhabited Star
named Lynx in the (so-called) Talbott Cluster. This became central to the
first novel of a new sub-series, Shadow of Saganami, and in some of the
short stories set after its discovery.
Since the wormhole junction termini links are so similar to "Age of
Sail"-like trade routes, the Star Kingdom of Manticore has a very
important role in interstellar trade and general commerce much out of
proportion to its population or number of planets. Like the British Royal
Navy in the days of the British Empire, the Royal Manticoran Navy has an
important role in maintaining the security and integrity of the star
nation's economy, and has been designed to do just that. The Star
Kingdom's wealth and importance have evoked both envy and avarice and it
has been and remains the object of much intrigue and friction on the part
of other large powers in the Honorverse: examples include the Solarian
League, the Republic of Haven, the Andermani Empire, Mesa and its
corporate powers, and the large, chaotic collection of mostly individual
star-polities known by the misnomer of the Silesian Confederacy, where
pirates roam, and more or less everyone wants to do business, or conquer,
or annex the mess.
There are some other interesting historical parallels to Earth's Age of
Sail built into the Honorverse. It is set primarily after Honor's October
1, 3961 birth. Disruptive technological advances have been gradual in the
Honorverse for most of the 500 years of the Star Kingdom of Manticore's
existence, and as the series opens, that technological stagnation has led
to a similar stagnation in both military strategy and tactics. The gravity
impeller propulsion systems used in spaceships require "gun ports" in
military vessels and captains strive to position their ships to maximize
their fire power by using a broadside attack akin to the unturreted days
dominated by the warships and ships of the line of the Age of Sail. Like
Horatio Hornblower, Lord Nelson and Thomas Cochrane, Honor Stephanie
Harrington is a superb ship handler bordering on genius.
Although most of the stories and books cast Honor in a starring role, more
recent additions to the series include short stories and novels in which
only passing references at most are made to her. In some cases this is
because they are set before her birth; otherwise the featured characters
have usually made appearances (if only brief ones) in Honor-centered
Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash - ( cyberpunk / near future dystopia / humor
The story begins and ends in Los Angeles, which is no longer part of what
is left of the United States, during the early 21st century. In this
hypothetical future reality the federal government of the United States
has ceded most of its power to private organizations and entrepreneurs.[1]
Franchising, individual sovereignty and automobiles reign supreme (along
with drug trafficking, violent crime, and traffic congestion). Mercenary
armies compete for national defense contracts while private security
guards preserve the peace in gated, sovereign housing developments.
Highway companies compete to attract drivers to their roads rather than
the competitors', and all mail delivery is by hired courier. The remnants
of government maintain authority only in isolated compounds where they
transact business that is, by and large, irrelevant to the booming,
dynamic society around them.
Much of the territory ceded by the government has been carved up into
sovereign enclaves, each run by its own big business franchise (such as
"Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong") or the various residential burbclaves
(suburban enclaves). This arrangement resembles anarcho-capitalism, a
theme Stephenson carries over to his next novel The Diamond Age.
Hyperinflation has devalued the dollar to the extent that trillion dollar
bills * Ed Meeses * are nearly disregarded and the quadrillion dollar note
* the Gipper * is the standard 'small' bill. For physical transactions
people resort to alternative, non-hyperinflated currencies such as yen or
"Kongbucks" (the official currency of Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong).
The Metaverse, a phrase coined by Stephenson as a successor to the
Internet, constitutes Stephenson's vision of how a virtual reality-based
Internet might evolve in the near future. Resembling an MMO, the Metaverse
is populated by user controlled avatars as well as system daemons.
Although there are public-access Metaverse terminals in Reality, using
them carries a social stigma among Metaverse denizens, in part because of
the poor visual representations of themselves as low-quality avatars.
Status in the Metaverse is a function of two things: access to restricted
environments such as the Black Sun, an exclusive Metaverse club, and
technical acumen, which is often demonstrated by the sophistication of
one's avatar.
Axis in Time Trilogy - First two books - ( military SciFI / time travel )
A US-led task force off Indonesia in 2021 finds itself sent back to 1942,
just prior to the Battle of Midway. The novels deal with a rapidly altered
version of World War II, and to a lesser extent the social changes that
result amongst the Allied powers.
The plot is similar to the 1980 movie The Final Countdown, about a modern
USN aircraft carrier which travels back in time to just before the 1941
attack on Pearl Harbor.
* World War 2.1: Weapons of Choice (2004)
* World War 2.2: Designated Targets (2005)
* World War 2.3: Final Impact (2007)
Old Man's War is a science fiction novel by John Scalzi published in 2005.
It was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2006.
A sequel, The Ghost Brigades, was published in 2006, followed by two other
books, The Last Colony and Zoe's Tale.
The first-person narrative is about a soldier named John Perry and his
exploits in the CDF (Colonial Defense Forces). Old Man's War is similar in
overall structure to Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers and Joe
Haldeman's The Forever War as it follows Perry's military career from CDF
recruit to the rank of captain. Set in a universe heavily populated with
life forms, much like David Brin's Uplift Universe, colonists from Earth
must compete for the scarce planetary real estate which is suitable for
sustaining life. As such, Perry must learn to battle against a wide
variety of aliens. While the soldiers in Starship Troopers and The Forever
War relied on powered body armor to gain advantage over their aliens, the
soldiers in Old Man's War have enhanced DNA and nanotechnology, giving
them advantages in strength, speed, and endurance.
Path of the Fury is a stand-alone science fiction novel by David Weber, in
three books of 34 chapters. It centers around former elite commando Alicia
DeVries's quest to attain revenge on the interstellar pirates who killed
her family. The work is strongly in Weber's military science fiction vein,
and its main character not dissimilar to Weber's other strong female
protagonists such as Honor Harrington, and numerous technological elements
reference other Weber series (such as the bio-implants, also found in the
Heirs of Empire series).


text:
| Email | Full Article (TrendHunter.com/id/157150) |
What better way to pay tribute to the iconic and comedic genius Bill Murray then with the 'Thrill Murray' coloring book from Belly Kids. This Bill Murray-inspired activity coloring book is loaded with Murray's popular culture movie references like Lost in Translation, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and Caddy Shack to name a few.
Get your Crayolas, your magic markers and your artistic skills ready for this coloring book, which is set for release on August 13th. According to Belly Kids, the creator behind this coloring book, "be you young, old, middle aged, bored, hyped or mildly interested this book is definitely for you." Pay homage to this iconic celebrity persona and let your inner artist shine.


text:
LOCAL 12 - Search Results
Health Alert: Breath Test for Kidney Disease Compounds
FLORENCE, Ky. (Liz Bonis) -- Your breath might hold the secret to whether or not you have a chronic illness according to a study released just moments ago.
Medical reporter Liz Bonis tells us about it in Thursday, November 7th, 2013, Health Alert.
Researchers in this study found that your breath tells a lot about you and in this case they were looking a kidney disease.
They found a difference in the breath of those tested with this disease compared to those without. Local 12 stopped at Faith Community Pharmacy Thursday to tell you more.
The study was published by the American Society of Nephrology, it was just presented at their annual meeting.
Researchers compared 15 people with kidney disease and on dialysis to those who were healthy. They found a number of different compounds in those who had kidney disease compared to what is normally found on a blood test.
Now the idea is not that it would replace a blood test, but it would rather be something that would be used as a non-invasive test; maybe at a wellness fair to tell you if you needed a blood test.
Just one more way for early detection that might give people more information about good health.


text:
Santa Maria Apartments
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Midsize Sedans 2.0
scape2 Posts: 4,119Please grad, read Captans posts.. will ya!@ it is very obvious he hates Ford and will make up stories and misinformation. And you back him %100.. Any change you or captain or Accordman get a chance you bash away at the blue oval.. and its ok. If I say something to contradict.. its game on!@
thegraduate Posts: 9,731
thegraduate Posts: 9,731
thegraduate Posts: 9,731
scape2 Posts: 4,119Oh, I'm chillin..
You don't know how long I have been here at Edmunds and how much "misinformation" I have seen. Most of it comes from the Honda/Toyota brethren on top of that.
" If one can't see the reason to pay the premium for Accord/Camry/Altima then one shouldn't. By all means go get the less expensive midsizer like Fusion and Sonata. Since in this case he/she would just be paying more for absolutely nothing. However, for those who can justify why the premium is worth it (like me) then there is also nothing wrong to opt for the more expensive camcords. At the end of the day...
Ya see.. you say "less expensive" Some in this room read this as "cheaper" or "cheap". Thus these sedans are viewed as less than a "premium sedan". That the Fusion/Milan/Sonata or whichever will in no=way last as long as an Accord/Camry or even an Altima!@ Been down this road before my friend with my Ranger in the Tacoma vs Ranger room. Ranger went over 110,000 miles with no issues.. and again in the Escape room vs CRV.. Escape went 75,000 miles with no issues.. I look at this differently. Toyota/Honda used to offer great value in the 70's and 80's. They have lost that edge.. -
thegraduate Posts: 9,731
scape2 Posts: 4,119http://consumerguideauto.howstuffworks.com/2005-to-2006-ford-five-hundred-1.htm
"an AWD did 0-60 in 7.5 seconds"..
Here is one.. -
goodegg Posts: 905Reliability is only one aspect of a good engine
Reliability only means that the car works when you want it to. It doesn't mean its that good of a design. A weak design (like the engine in the 500) may run and run, but who wants it to when you discover how woefully underpowered it is? -
thegraduate Posts: 9,731
thegraduate Posts: 9,731
captain2 Posts: 3,971source: Consumer Reports an article entitled 'what is an American car - 2 Toyota models (the Camry and Avalon) have significantly more than the Mustang's 60% American made parts content. Read it and weep, or dismiss it as some Ford 'bashing' on CRs part, if you wish. I couldn't bring myself to believe it at first either - that bastion of Americana the Mustang of all things.I believe if you research this a little though you will find a good piece of that offending 40% is under the hoods..
lilengineerboy Posts: 4,116
It would bode well for Ford to put the 2.5 in the Fusion/Milan and have at least 175HP mated to a 6speed auto/manual box. I don't see this happening, if at all until 09 model upgrade.
Not auto/manual...a real manual with a foot operated clutch pedal and something that sticks up between the seats where you manually select the gear desired. -
elroy5 Posts: 3,741scape, this is from your own post
It would bode well for Ford to put the 2.5 in the Fusion/Milan and have at least 175HP mated to a 6speed auto/manual box. I don't see this happening, if at all until 09 model upgrade.
You have also said that the Fusion should have the 3.5L engine, instead of the 3.0L. If they do use the 2.5 and the 3.5 liter engines in 09 it will be a generation too late. Why were these engines not used to begin with? Other sedans in this segment have been using higher powered engines for years now. The Fusion is a generation behind. Buying a current generation Fusion is like buying the last generation of most other midsize sedans. The Fusion is still 4 to 5 years behind the competition, IMO. -
captain2 Posts: 3,971my problem with this is the same HP/lb. (1:20) ratio that would yield (let's be kind) - non-competitive acceleration capabilities, keeping in mind that some of these better engines today can and do deliver both power and economy. Taking 3 steps back like this and going back even further to an early 90s engine, is not going to help FE and would kill power of course - buyers these days want BOTH. Hell, the Altima 4 banger will hit that 175HP and leave that old Contour 100 miles behind before the first gas stop. Technology, I believe, is the answer to better more efficient engines, not simply reducing their size.
thegraduate Posts: 9,731
scape2 Posts: 4,119"Taking 3 steps back like this and going back even further to an early 90s engine, is not going to help FE and would kill power of course - buyers these days want BOTH. Hell, the Altima 4 banger will hit that 175HP and leave that old Contour 100 miles behind before the first gas stop. Technology, I believe, is the answer to better more efficient engines, not simply reducing their size.
Are you so sure about leaving that "old Contour 100 miles behind?? Contour 5spd 4cyl gets 33MPG..NEW Nissan 4cyl 35MPG. (I know, the Nissan has 45 more HP, but c'mon.. its a 10 year old car). Also, the V6 Contour 5spd got 170HP and 30MPG..Highway.. it also had a 12 gallon tank. ya know, this is dumb... :blush: -
scape2 Posts: 4,119http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2003-03-11-cr-picks_x.htm
I'm sure I'll hear the Honda crowd scream over this one. I know I don't own a Hyundia, but I never said I never would. I say Kudos to Hyundia and all the Hyundia owners. Once this starts to spread and get out.. I bet Hyundia sales will take a nice climb... :surprise: -
thegraduate Posts: 9,731Scape2 said: "I am just one consumer who saw past all the CR"
We can't have it both ways, scape.
You were right though, as a Honda owner, I did love the article. It stated that the Honda Accord was the "Top Pick" in its category. So, what do we believe? Hyundai is equal to Honda and Honda Accord is the Top Pick?
Sounds reasonable to me, since the Accord was my Top Pick too, and Hyundai has been known to be improving for several years now.
I guess you'll ignore this post too though, just like the ones asking you to point out my bashing of Ford. Oh well. -
thegraduate Posts: 9,731
kdshapiro Posts: 5,751Why are you quoting an article from 2003? It isn't relevant in 2007.
The great thing about these forums is that one can debate the pros and cons of these cars. At the end of the day, I buy the car I feel most comfortable with. In my book Honda and Toyota lead the segment lead the segment overall. Ford has a lot of catching up to do. In the late 80s/early 90s a family sedan=Ford, not any more. I think Ford offers real value, but a few bucks more one gets into a better class of car. -
benderofbows Posts: 544Good topic. I for one would certainly consider a diesel Accord. Judging by the recent Edmunds report posted earlier, a diesel will be available in the next generation Accord, and I can't wait to test drive it. I also think a full comparison test (price, driving experience, real-world MPG, etc.) between the upcoming Accord diesel and the Camry or Altima hybrids (both Prius technology) will make a great read. I passed on the Hybrid Camry mainly because of the price premium (among other reasons).
lilengineerboy Posts: 4,116
goodegg Posts: 905I think Ford offers real value, but a few bucks more one gets into a better class of car.
Exactly. I'll add Hyundai to that statement.
Plus if scape bothered to check, sales of Hyundai in 2007 are way off. The Sonata sold about 10,000 units last month. Good car, but 10,000 units? That's hardly a movement. -
captain2 Posts: 3,971beng one of those consumers that somehow doesn't 'see thru all the CR' - it is somewhat interesting to note that Sonata reliability ratings have fallen off in those 4 years since that article. Understandable, IMO in that it was a totally new car in 05. The Fusion been around less time, the jury must be regarded as 'still out', but it may hold its rather lofty position from a reliability standpoint in that in most respects it was not a truly new car at introduction. There are some advantages to using old engines/trannies and established chassis designs etc.. Ford would be doing a lot better if it could approach Hyundai's current product line.
zzzoom6 Posts: 425I like the idea, but I'd have to reserve final judgement until I had a chance to drive it and have at least a couple years to see how it holds up. I tend not to be an early adopter since unanticipated issues often come up even though Honda has done a pretty good job with their new products in the recent past. But I think a diesel would suit my current commute well(short, in city driving). On the other hand, I don't think my criteria for choosing a car would change; a 20% increase in fuel mileage would only save me $6 a week at the most. So that means it would take me 4 years to recoup the extra expense, assuming diesel costs 20% less per gallon. Since I probably will keep my car for 6+ years, it may make sense to go this route if driving dynamics and reliability are still good. But those are big "if's" and wouldn't buy into it until there was some good data showing it holds up.


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DHA prometric exam - page 2
Hi does anyone took the DHA exam? I'm just waiting for the result, i took the computer based exam now.. hope i pass the exam..... Read More
0May 10, '12 by rblriveraHi chengzz. i just want to ask how long did it take for you to know the results of your prometric exam? did DHA email you, or did you have to follow it up with DHA? i am also awaiting the results of my exam, i took it last may 6, i have no idea how long it will take to know the results. thank you very much.
0Jun 12, '12 by le.carbonelhi everyone. i'm planning to take the DHA exam this year. probably on November. they have a testing center in the Philippines now. i'd like to know if you have any idea how to register and where to submit the requirements? thank you! x
0Aug 22, '12 by daniel3rdyhi chengzz i will be taking my exam next week can you give me some pointers,big thanks...
0Aug 27, '12 by reni daniel12heloo i wana apply for dha test in india do let me knw d contact details plz im a bsc nurse graduate from pune
1Aug 28, '12 by Silverdragon102, RN AdminQuote from reni daniel12As per the Terms of Service of the site we respectfully ask that you do not use text talk/chatheloo i wana apply for dha test in india do let me knw d contact details plz im a bsc nurse graduate from punesandriya likes this.
0Sep 8, '12 by tahani_rndearest chengzz,
i would like to ask how will i know if i already passed the DHA examination? I already received an Eligibility letter from the DHA using their official website which states that: Has Been Approved As : Registered Nurse NursingAnd this letter was given to the applicant in order to seek employment and to submit it to the concerned Healthcare Facilities for the issuance of DHA license. Is this really it??? Please response. Thank You


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Fri, Aug 17, 12 at 7:38
I lost this set of 1920's chairs a few years back and am so very sorry that I did. I try to decorate my 1927 Sears bungalow in authentic period pieces from the early 20's to pre WWII. I've looked high and low for a similar set of DR chairs to match this maple base, deco pattern enamel top table and my deco waterfall china cabinet and buffet but cant seem to find them anywhere. Can someone please help me identify these chairs? Thanks very much. |
Follow-Up Postings:
Also any suggestions for a new set that would match my period furnishings...thanks much! |
Shame you let them go....very nice chairs. You might try Jacobean Revival....not sure if the link I have posted will translate or not. |
Here is a link that might be useful: table and chairs
- Posted by patty_cakes (My Page) on Fri, Aug 17, 12 at 13:04
If you have a local craigslist, you might want to try the antique section. I see many, many antique/vintage chairs, and you could just get lucky. ;o) |
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